Election Coverage Now Comes From Blogs

Election coverage now comes from blogs.

Whether they be blogs run by the mainstream media, blogs that have the status of mainsteam media, such as FiveThirtyEight, blogs published by legal commenators, or citizen bloggers, blogs dominate election coverage.

In addition, what Americans read on social media is often a report originally published on a blog.

This was not the case not that long ago.

Sixteen years ago, the Boston Globe’s Teresa Hanafin, reporting from. the Democratic National Convention shared the following:

They don’t have space in the media pavilion, and are forced to pay exorbitant prices for lunch at the press café – unless they are willing to wait in long lines at McDonald’s in the FleetCenter or bring their own food.

The crowded workspace they do have is in the rafters of the convention hall, which they would be sharing with pigeons if this were the old Boston Garden.

Who are they?

They are bloggers: Those who write weblogs, online journals of sorts with regular entries chronicling anything from the latest in tech gadgets to opinions on the Iraq war to personal reflections on their favorite band or the joys of growing eggplant – most with extensive links to other weblogs or websites, helping to fulfill the promise of the Internet by serving as one part of the connective tissue that is the worldwide Web.

They may not have much in the way of amenities here, but they are wearing a piece of gold around their necks: Credentials certifying them as members of the media sanctioned to cover the Democratic National Convention.

Dave Winer, the godfather of blogging and attending the convention, aptly shared with Hanafin blogging’s status then.

Blogging has already played a substantial role in the presidential campaign of 2004. However, its role on the local level, in the House races and Senate races and in state races, is going to be much greater than it is on the national level.

Blogs are essentially a decentralization technology; it makes it easy for an individual to create a publication and to influence other people and to share ideas, and so forth.

This is a milestone, but it’s not the last milestone…In four years at the political conventions, basically everybody will be a blogger. Politically active people who don’t have weblogs will have a hard time competing with those who do.”

Blogs have democratized journalism. As Winer says, blogs are a decentralizaton technology.

Rather than one to many, we’re now a many to many in the reporting of election news – through bloggers and their ancillary social media.